Caught You Looking: The NBA Playoffs’ Four Biggest Surprises So Far

Kevin Garnett? Not as old as we thought he was.

The Los Angeles Lakers and Orlando Magic are exactly where we expected them to be right now in the Playoffs.

The Phoenix Suns and Boston Celtics, not so much.

It’s been a wild 2010 NBA Playoffs so far. The tooth-and-nail, fight-’em-out seventh-game overtime showdowns of 2009 have given way to uncontested blowouts (like for the Cleveland Cavaliers) and ignominious exits (the Atlanta Hawks).

Needless to say, it’s been a postseason full of surprises. We’ve rounded up How To Watch Sport’s top four NBA analysts, and asked them each what the biggest surprise has been since the regular season ended.

Alex McVeigh: Caron Butler and Joe Johnson’s lack of offensive flexibility

Caron Butler and Joe Johnson came into the 2010 playoffs with clear-cut objectives. Caron Butler escaped the prison that was the Washington Wizards and suddenly went from lottery-bound to the middle of a Western
Conference playoff chase. While the team had its ups and downs since the All-Star Break, the Dallas Mavericks snagged the second seed and were the favorite to take out the Lakers.

Joe Johnson entered the playoffs as the fourth name in the “LeBron, Wade, Bosh, Johnson” quartet of players who were likely to get a max contract somewhere. Coming into the season, Johnson was confident enough in his abilities to turn down a four year, $60 million deal. The Hawks possessed so much athleticism and raw talent that they were a dark horse to get to the Conference Finals.

But Johnson and Butler both suffered disappointing playoff runs, and both runs showcased their weaknesses on offense. Both players are good at creating their own shot, but they’re also ballstoppers. If they get the ball, they’re shooting it, no matter what. Both players specialize in getting iso’d and beating a man off the dribble.

The problem is, neither player showed any offensive flexibility. They just kept jacking up their shots, and it didn’t turn out well at all. Johnson submitted two sub-par series and Butler’s play was so poor he was benched for an entire half.

I knew both players were flawed, but they were both essentially worthless (though Butler did have one good game) in the playoffs, and their complete lack of offensive diversity hurt both players, as well as their teams.

Roger Pimentel: No amount of supporting talent can save the Cavaliers from themselves

Ever since LeBron James single-handedly took Cleveland to the NBA Finals in 2007 (the way I remember it, he was the only player on the floor for the Cavs), the offseasons and trade deadlines have been a parade of possible suitors to be LeBron’s #2. Each has apparently been too short, too tall, too fat, or too skinny, and even this year’s much-more-talented squad fell short in the Playoffs.

Granted, Cleveland’s supporting cast is nothing like the Lakers’ gauntlet, or even the Celtics’ trio. But with the addition of Shaquille O’Neal and Antawn Jamison this year, plus Anthony Parker guarding opposing wings, the Cavs should have had enough firepower to get over the hump—seeing as they’ve been so close before.

That’s why it’s become clear that change needs to start at the top with this team. Head Coach Mike Brown has still shown an inability to make in-game adjustments, and to form an offensive game plan that extends outside of LeBron vs. Five. If the team hasn’t gotten better despite upgrades at four of five positions—and that fifth position houses the best player on the planet—then someone is holding them back.

Mark my word: Next year either LeBron or Brown will be gone from the Cavaliers’ huddle, and likely both. If LeBron joins a team that can create its own offense and a coach that can maximize talent, then we won’t have this kind of surprise in future postseasons.

Sam Orme: The Boston Celtics aren’t too old yet

We’ve seen plenty of surprises so far in the playoffs (the incredible return and subsequent disappearance of Brandon Roy, the Mavs being punked by the Spurs, the never-say-die Bucks, etc.), but from where I’m sitting, the single biggest surprise has to be the resurgence of the Boston Celtics. They squandered a sizzling season start by finishing 27-27. Essentially, they weren’t any better than the Chicago Bulls over the last 60% of the regular season. They looked old, they played old, and most of us assumed they would be bounced by Miami in the first round.

Except they fought back. They found their old defensive mojo and pasted the Heat in five games. And then they refused to stop. Cleveland didn’t fare much better, never getting an offensive rhythm going as they made LeBron James’ elbow the most talked about joint in the NBA since the Portland Jail Blazers era (See what I did there?). And now against an Orlando juggernaut, they’re doing the same thing. Despite a heroic last-minute run in the fourth quarter of both games so far, the Magic have looked helpless against the suffocating Celtics defense.

None of us saw this coming. Not from an aging Big Three, not from a decrepit Michael Finley and Rasheed Wallace, and certainly not from Rajon Rondo, who has quietly morphed into a cross between Oscar Robertson and Magic Johnson over the last month. In April, I was scrambling for reasons why the Celtics would even be able to make it out of the first round. Now, I’m having a tough time thinking of reasons they won’t win it all.

Now that’s a surprise.

Kyle Flanagan: The Utah Jazz lost—before the Playoffs even began

I believe the narrator of the critically-acclaimed show The Wonder Years put it best when he said, “Maybe part of loving, is learning to let go.”

This postseason tens of thousands of Utah Jazz fans were reminded of the reasons behind their love-hate relationship with their team. After all, the Jazz entered game number 82 of the season with a chance to secure the second seed in the Western Conference. After 48 minutes of play, the Phoenix Suns left Salt Lake City with a 100-86 throttling of the Jazz and the third seed—leaving the Jazz to the all to familiar fifth seed in the Western Conference.

In a game that meant control of their own destiny, the Jazz slipped. They stumbled. They crumbled. But what bothered fans more than the loss was the fact that joining the 19,911 in the stands for that game was Utah power forward, Carlos Boozer, who was out with a strained oblique. Whether or not Boozer was suffering enough pain to warrant missing perhaps the biggest game of the season is irrelevant in my opinion. But what his absence showed me is just what Kevin Arnold thought in his own head: “Maybe part of loving, is learning to let go.” Maybe it was time for Utah fans to show their love of Boozer and their appreciation of the two-time All-Star by letting go.

Fans were irate when going home that fateful night of the Suns beatdown. Thoughts of opening up the Playoffs on the road, against their arch-nemesis the Denver Nuggets was stomach-turning. But after a solid effort gave the Jazz a 114-111 victory in Game 2 against the Nuggets, led by a combined 53 points from Deron Williams and Boozer, things seemed better—much better. The Jazz took both games in Utah and ended the series in a Game 6 112-104 victory. Throughout the series, Boozer chipped in a solid 22.5 points and 13.3 rebounds per game. Utah fans thought, forget Kevin Arnold and learning to let go.

Rather, their thoughts turned to that anonymous quote: “If you love something, set it free; if it comes back, it’s yours. If it doesn’t, it never was.”

Boozer was their love. He and Williams were flowing, the team was rolling, things were good in the Beehive State. Utah fans figured they loved Boozer and would set him free (due to his pending free-agency), but they felt that he would come back and be theirs.

Enter the Lakers.

If you had a radio, TV or newspaper in Utah, you were well aware of the “length” advantage the Lakers held. Boozer was limited to 15.5 points and was visibly bothered by the Lakers’ defensive presence.

Before a bee could fly around the Beehive, Utah found itself swept under the rug by the Lakers, 4-0. TNT’s Craig Sager wasted no time asking Boozer where he was heading (literally 10 minutes after Game 4), and while Boozer said he would have to evaluate it this summer, Utah fans can’t help but turn to another quote by their friend Anonymous to define their love relationship of Boozer:

“Love begins with a smile, grows with a kiss, and ends with a teardrop.”